This blog is dedicated to the worldwide struggle for freedom, individual liberties, personal autonomy and the right to self-ownership - against any kind of legal paternalism, legal moralism and authoritarianism. Its aim is to post related news and commentary published mainly in the major U.S., European and Greek media. It was created by Prof. Aristides Hatzis of the University of Athens.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

New York City's landmark commission's decision this week to allow a mosque to be built near the World Trade Center site further fueled the passionate national debate over the project. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended it as a symbol of America’s religious tolerance. But politicians like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and others outside the city have been lacerating in their criticism. Mr. Gingrich, for one, said that the proposed Islamic center "is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites."

New Yorkers, by now, are used to this sort of attention. What role does the city play in the American political imagination in the post-9/11 era? Is this simply another role among many -- elitist bastion, epicenter of urban decay, the antithesis of the American homeland -- the city has been variously assigned in national politics?

Irgendwann fällt jede Mauer

"Eventually every wall falls"

Self-ownership

The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right... The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. John Stuart Mill

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